On 13 September, Taiwan Foreign Minister Jaushieh Joseph Wu talked up Taiwan’s credentials as a front-line state defending freedom, democracy and rules-based order from China’s intensified coercion during a video address at the Global Taiwan Institute Annual Symposium which took place in Washington.

“China’s actions are a threat to security and the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific,” Wu said. “It has no qualms in using economic leverage to impose political views on foreign citizens, governments and private companies,” he added.

“Let’s tell it like it is: There is no Taiwan problem,” Wu said. “There’s only a ‘China problem,” involving its coercion of Taiwan in the diplomatic, economic, military and political realms.

Wu’s remarks were well-received by participants at the event on Taiwan-US relations. Attendees included Christine Hsueh, deputy head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US and James F. Moriarty, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan.